Stoici

(Στοικοί). The adherents of a school of philosophy (Stoicism) founded by Zeno of Citium about A.D. 310. They derived their name from the Painted Stoa (στοὰ ποικίλη) in Athens, in which Zeno lectured. The Stoic teaching was one of stern morality, the principle being “a life in accordance with nature and controlled by virtue.” It was an ascetic system, teaching perfect indifference (ἀπάθεια) to everything external, for nothing external could be either good or evil. Hence to the Stoics both pain and pleasure, poverty and riches, sickness and health, were supposed to be equally unimportant (see stoa). For further details, see Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics (London, 1869); Ravisson, Essai sur le Stoicisme (Paris, 1852); Capes, Stoicism (London, 1880); and the articles philosophia; Zeno.